Efficacy of Caffeine Injection as an Adjuvant to Opioid Therapy in Cancer Pain

Summary

Pain is a most common symptom and it has a high impact on quality of life in cancer patients. Many cancer patients have received opioid therapy, but also many of them have suffered from side effects of opioids. Drowsiness and confusion are common side effects of opioids. Caffeine is a well known psychostimulant,and it is widely used as an analgesics. Thus, the investigators aimed to prove the efficacy of intravenous caffeine administration as an adjuvant analgesics to opioids. At the same time, the investigators tried to find that the side effects of opioids could be ameliorated by caffeine.

Timeline

Start

2009-04

Primary completion

2009-07

Completion

2009-09

Publications

• Background Mercadante S, Serretta R, Casuccio A. Effects of caffeine as an adjuvant to morphine in advanced cancer patients. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2001 May;21(5):369-72. doi: 10.1016/s0885-3924(01)00249-4.
• Background Manfredi PL, Gonzales GR. Symptomatic uses of caffeine in patients with cancer. J Palliat Care. 2003 Spring;19(1):63-5. No abstract available.
• Background Bruera E, Watanabe S. Psychostimulants as adjuvant analgesics. J Pain Symptom Manage. 1994 Aug;9(6):412-5. doi: 10.1016/0885-3924(94)90179-1.

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Indications